7th December 2004 Archive

A posh stationers in London's Covent Garden has unveiled an "interactive shop window" (ISW) which lets window shoppers see what's on offer before going into the store. Described as a "merging of 'clicks and bricks'", this latest shopping gimmick to hit the Bureau stationery shop is a "blend of the on and offline shopping experience".

This Thursday, 9 December, is the last date on which readers in the US, Canada, Japan and Eastern Europe can order Cash'n'Carrion goodies for pre-Christmas delivery. Get those orders in by then and we'll ship your top-notch kit for enjoyment before the turkey hits the dinner table. Enjoy.

It appears that our report of the demise of the tritium-powered atomic keyring was somewhat premature, since nuclear-powered torch outfit Nite has decided to resurrect this classic piece of kit. Here's the blurb:

Handset maker Motorola yesterday won the right to pursue the Uzan family for money it claims was obtained fraudulently. Members of the Uzan family used to control Turkish mobile operator Telsim. They are accused by Motorola and Nokia of making fraudulent use of vendor financing arrangements.

Product development in the storage management market shows no signs of slowing down. Within this large domain, storage virtualisation continues to hold its position at the leading edge of advancement. Last month saw one of the leading suppliers of storage solutions, Network Appliance (NetApp), give details of its vision of the Storage Grid when it released details of its Data ONTAP 7G software.

L'Orange is launching consumer 3G services in the UK and France. It is claiming the most comprehensive range of handsets - four are available immediately and two more on the way soon. Tariffs start at £30 a month including mobile internet access and video calling.

As I mentioned in a recent article IBM is to make a series of software announcements that will bring z/series to the heart of SOA (service oriented architecture). The first announcement included CICS Transaction Server V3.1 and CICS Transaction Gateway V6.0. They include several significant enhancements that show that IBM intends that CICS will not just be a passive legacy system but will be driving new applications and users into the web services world.

Mesh Broadband is pulling the plug on its Cambridge wireless broadband network on December 15. It took over the running of the Cambridge network when it acquired wireless broadband operator Invisible Networks (IN) last year after the operator went titsup.

Faultline would like to put forward another explanation of why IBM's PC business is suddenly up for sale, one that we haven't yet seen proffered in the various publications that have covered the news in the last few days.

Good Technology is to push further into Europe, the company said this week, with the creation of sales and support channels in six countries. The mobile data specialist also announced the expansion of its North American channel.

This may come as a surprise, but according to id Software you shouldn't play Doom 3 with the Leadtek WinFast PX6600TD. As you'll see on the Doom 3 system requirements here: a GeForce 4 MX graphics card is fine, and so is a GeForce 6800, but the GeForce 6600 doesn't get a look-in. This is nonsense of course, as the Leadtek plays Doom 3 amazingly well, especially since we can't help but think of the Leadtek as a budget graphics card, writes Leo Waldock.

Advertisers are desperate, says Katherine Hays, Chief Operating Officer of Massive, the US company that has just come out of stealth mode to lay claim to the world's first advertising network for multiple games on multiple gaming platforms.

Piracy, especially optical disc piracy, is big business in the Asia-Pacific. The Motion Picture Association (MPA) estimates that Asia-Pacific piracy costs the US motion picture industry over $718m a year in potential revenue. This does not include the impact piracy has on employment and the cost imposed on countries in terms of lost tax revenues and missed investment opportunities.

Technology Services Group (TSG) has bought a ESCO, small Scottish networking reseller based in Cumbernauld, its third acquisition in as many weeks. Terms are undisclosed. All 17 ESCO staff are moving to TSG offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. TSG now employs 100 staff across the border, serving 2,200 customers.